Open Thread 7 May

The second time in as many weeks coming home from Drinking Liberally, the bus passed without stopping. Last week another one came soon. Yesterday it was 10 more minutes. It was pleasant out, but goddam. I don’t know where I’m going with this, but should I call Metro if it happens again?

Recent WH assertions of executive privilege do not appear to me to be legal in their intent. That the Attorney General acting in his official capacity is among those advancing the assertions is kind of a huge tell.

The Attorney General is not the lawyer for the White House. Nor is the Attorney General the lawyer for the President acting in his official capacity. In effect, the Attorney General has no authority under statue or the constitution to assert executive privilege. The Attorney General may be subject to an assertion of executive privilege, like most other cabinet level officers and White House employees. But he has no standing to advance an assertion of executive privilege. And he knows this. He knows this very well.

So we are back to watching the GOP treat the law as magick incantations for the amusement of the beer-drunk dullards at the base of the GOP. Barr can’t assert executive privilege. He is not the executive. Nor is he the executive’s legal counsel. And Congress is not bound to notice or respond to an assertion without standing. So they won’t. From the DOJ this is nothing more than performance art intended to sway opinion among Dumbfucks and provide “smart guy” talking for the animatronic hairdos of Fox and Friends.

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I feel like probably Richard Neal is taking the right approach for all this. There’s not much point in issuing subpoenas that you know the agencies will ignore. And probably not much point right now in voting contempt. Go straight to a federal court, obtain declaratory relief, and let the court hold the government officer in contempt. Chuck Rettig might want to have a nice chat with Kim Davis while he tries to decide whether he swore an oath to uphold the constitution or to tongue Steve Mnuchin’s wrinkled ball sack.

I wonder if Erica Barnett has ever considered that she could double her potential audience if she ever paid any attention to, you know, the other side of the story. I mean, there are only so many benevolent billionaires out there who are willing to subsidize those who only share one side.

Chuck Johnson, Milo, Richard Spencer, Alex Jones, Laura Loomer (who shit her pants), Andrew Anglin, fuck, I haven’t got time this morning for the incredibly long list of “conservative new-media rising stars” now serving breakfast at a Waffle House in Seven Corners. Without the free lift from Russian bot-farms it turns out that “White Power” just wasn’t all the popular after all. But now the GOP is stuck with it. I bet that really sucks.

@4 That’s a republican meme that their tax dollars are wasted and they never get what they paid for, so why fund it at all. Democrats expect government to be honest and to work for people, and then strive to make it happen while republicans expect government to be corrupt and to NOT work for people, and then strive to make it happen

@7. the other side of the story about how the earth is really flat? the other side of the story about how tobacco has no harmful side effects? the other side of the story that trickle down economics works for everyone? the other side of the story that Nazis are good people? the other side of the story that man made climate change is a hoax? the other side of the story that Obama is really a Kenyan Muslim. the other side of the story that congress doesn’t need to see the full Mueller report, or tax returns the other side of the story that Clinton really did have a pedophile sex dungeon in the pizza place. the other side of the story that every person that every cop kills was a needful death.

Remember the most successful first hundred days of any administration in the history of the United States Universe? All that policy getting done. All those Obama policies overturned by Executive Order simply because the darky couldn’t have done anything sensible right?

While hosting the Army Football Team at the White House:

“It’s a big deal,” Trump told Army’s team and coach. “I hope it doesn’t become the story but it is a big story because I’m going to look at doing a waiver for service academy athletes who can get into the major leagues, like the NFL, hockey, baseball. We’re going to see if we can do it and they’ll serve their time after they’re finished with professional sports. And that’ll make things, can you imagine this incredible coach with that little asset?”

Can you imagine. Well we shouldn’t have had to imagine because President Obama enacted that policy in 2016 and Donald reversed it shortly after coming into office and before any graduating class could really take advantage of it.

But overturning everything President Obama did was the sole focus of the 100 days not actual sound policy.

Funny he referred to it not to doing their tour or duty but “serve their time.” What’s been on his mind lately?

@7, 10 – That’s what editors are for, when you’re talking about professional journalism. On a blog like this, of course, there are no gatekeepers, so dumbfuck trolls can post nonsense without restraint or editorial oversight. If they then get torn apart, mocked, and humiliated by other commenters, well, that’s their problem.

@14. Good point, republicans stealing money for the loser’s vanity wall is a great example of government not working. @15 funny how he doesn’t mention the conservatives who funded alt right media at a loss for decades.

“A northern Kentucky teenager banned from school for refusing the chickenpox vaccination due to his religious beliefs has come down with the childhood malady, his attorney said Wednesday. … ‘These are deeply held religious beliefs, they’re sincerely held beliefs,’ family attorney Christopher Wiest said. ‘From their perspective, they always recognized they were running the risk of getting it, and they were OK with it.’ Some ultraconservative Catholics oppose chickenpox vaccinations because it was developed in the 1960s from cell lines of two aborted fetuses.”

Roger Rabbit Commentary: Fine, but to their religious beliefs extend to asserting a right to expose other people to it? Apparently so, because they sued the health department to overturn the ban.

There’s an old saying that “your freedom to swing your fist stops where my nose begins.” Religious rights, like other rights, must have boundaries when their exercise affects others.

If religious freedom is interpreted to include a “right” to spread infectious diseases in the community, then why wouldn’t it also include a “right” to hang “witches” and burn “apostates” at the stake? Where would these people draw a line; where would they stop?

History gives us every reason to fear ultraconservative Catholics if religious freedom has no boundaries. After all, ultraconservative Catholics of bygone eras were the authors of the Inquisition and many other horrific atrocities.

The answer, quite simply, is that the First Amendment entitles people like these to religious liberty, not religious freedom. They’re two different things. “Liberty” implies a right to be left alone; it does not imply freedom to do whatever you like regardless of how it affects others.

The government did not force this kid to get vaccinated. It only prevented him from exposing others. That’s a proper government role in a free society which conforms with the true meaning of the First Amendment.

And that may be the greatest irony in all this. I’m of course being facetious when I say Barr “thinks” he can act as White House Counsel. The law forbids that. And he knows it. But he works for a man too stupid, illiterate, lazy, incompetent, and impatient to be able to understand that. President Obstruction wanted Jeff Sessions to “protect him”. And he demanded it of Barr before making his appointment. So Barr knew what role he was auditioning for. But as Barr surely also knows, in a legal sense, this makes him far less capable of offering the vigorous legal protection that a true advocate could.

At least it works politically, and in a round-about way legally too. But not the way president fingerfuck thinks. Barr can spout whatever nonsense he wants, throw his weight around, and pound the table, thus pacifying the bloated, angry, scared-shitless rage-baby. But it can’t have much effect. And it leaves Cippolinni off the hook for any legal consequences. Barr gets to play a theatrical role to please the hooting baboon troop*. And nobody in the White House Counsel’s office has to explain to the boss why they can’t do want he’s asking them to do.

Worst of both worlds when it finally gets in front of a judge. All of Barr’s arguments, threats, pleadings, musings, speculations, and other erstwhile PR efforts will be swept aside. But nobody has to choose between quitting or going to jail… except their president. And he won’t even know that the choice is being made for him.

*I think it’s time for the committees to disappear AG Barr. He should not be given any further opportunities to appear, since he is refusing to appear in his constitutional capacity as AG. They should subpoena his Deputies, etc.

Speaking of Doctor Dumbfuck, I suspect he’s bit out of sorts today. You see, he was really, really hoping that Prince Harry would be photographed holding a little black baby so he could post some dumbfuck racist comments.

Elizabeth Warren: There are three inescapable facts from the Mueller report that Mitch McConnell can’t hide: 1. A foreign government attacked our elections in order to help Donald Trump. 2. Trump welcomed that help. 3. Trump tried to obstruct the investigation into his actions.

I have yet to read anything from our conservatives saying they objected to any of this.

30,000 of them. Criminal misconduct and abuse so bad their state agencies decertified them. And for many of them that did not prevent them from continuing to obtain employment in public safety and law enforcement. That’s how bullshit their system is. A few of them even served as Sheriffs and Chiefs after having been convicted of felonies.

And it’s just the tip of the iceberg. Since state decertification is very, very rare often only occurring following a serious criminal conviction. Police who plant evidence, lie under oath, swear false reports, steal, or violently assault citizens without cause will typically only face administrative penalties like additional training and a few days suspension without pay.

We are each of us paying huge sums in taxes to place in our communities an unaccountable force of insular, violent, paranoids covered in body armor and weapons and trained to see each of us as threats to their lives and safety. Modern policing makes all of us less safe. The numbers speak for themselves.

Why yes she is. Officer Sandra Delafuente, $45/hr plus overtime and benefits for life. Including thousands of hours of staff time dealing with her misbehavior, thousands more of private attorney fees to investigate, negotiate, and settle, and of course the $100,000 plus plaintiff’s attorney fees. And you are all paying for it.

In Re 8, Speaking of “conservative new-media rising stars” now serving breakfast at a Waffle House in Seven Corners.. If Ben Domenech fires Denise McAllister for going on an unhinged, hate-filled, homophobic Twitter rant…who fires Ben?

Hey, guess what Megs? Ben was at your wedding too! Ha Ha! See what I did there?

Watching these people cut off their own dicks, swallow them, cough them up, light them on fire, and then stomp them out in a crazed public chicken dance of humiliation has become the new normal for Republicans.

Over the past 150 years or so, how many times has the US government interfered in the elections of other nations? If we don’t like foreigners interfering with out election process, then maybe we should not meddle in the elections in places like Iran and Guatemala.

@36, 38 – Well, I’m willing to give Nixon and his CIA credit for instigating the overthrow and murder of Chile’s elected president and the subsequent installation of a brutal rightwing dictator in 1973.

And I’m willing to give Reagan and Ollie North credit for arming the Contra terrorists trying to overthrow the elected president of Nicaragua when not busy murdering priests and nuns.

Hey, I’m not saying socialist government is the way to go. Venezuela did and look at the mess it’s in now. But you have a point — Republican administrations have a long and sordid history of fucking with other people’s democracies. Trump’s probably too much of a pussy to do it, though. Besides, he likes dictators too much.

Demorat Pornstar Party Of Russia Hoax & Pussywhipped Punks News–House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerry Nadler (D-Submissive) Declares Constitutional Crisis But Claims It’s Not His Fault; “I’d Impeach Trump If I Had Balls But I’m A Pussywhipped Demorat And Princess Nancy Says To Keep Stalling With The Underlings.” ——————— During a press conference after the House Judiciary Committee voted to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt on Wednesday, House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerry Nadler (D-NY) stated that we “are now in a constitutional crisis.” Nadler said, “We’ve talked for a long time about approaching a constitutional crisis. We are now in it. We are now in a constitutional crisis. … Now is the time of testing whether we can keep a republic, or whether this republic is destined to change into a different, more tyrannical form of government, as other republics have over the centuries.”https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2019/05/08/nadler-we-are-now-in-a-constitutional-crisis/

If you call Metro Customer Service, give them the time and the bus number, the driver will be talked to by her chief. If it happens enough, they will be subject to disciplinary action, leading up to losing their job.

Demorat Pornstar Party Of Russia Hoax & Cultural Enhancement News- Philly Demorats Welcome Vibrant ISIS Enhancement. ——————— The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) reported Friday that the Muslim American Society Islamic Center in Philadelphia (MAS Philly) had uploaded a video of children wearing Palestinian attire and singing jihadist songs. The video, which was uploaded to the center’s Facebook page on April 22, appears to be one of several videos uploaded in celebration of “Ummah Day.” (The word “ummah” refers to the worldwide Muslim community.) The center uploaded several other videos to its Facebook page, each featuring children making presentations that represented other Muslim countries. However, the Palestinian video now appears to have been deleted. In the video, which MEMRI reposted with subtitles, the children are shown singing jihadist or terrorist songs, praising the “blood of martyrs,” a reference to suicide bombing. They also sing “Our Palestine must return to us,” and recite speeches praising suicide bombers: “They compete with one another to reach Paradise.” They add: “We will chop off their heads, and we will liberate the sorrowful and exalted Al-Aqsa Mosque … and we will subject them to eternal torture.” One child wears a t-shirt showing a map of Palestine on which Israel has been eliminated.https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2019/05/05/muslim-school-philadelphia-jihad/

They’re not the only ones. Guess which country and song these lyrics are from:

Do you hear in the countryside The roaring of those fierce soldiers? They’re coming into your arms To cut the throats of your sons and women. To arms, citizens, Form your battalions, Let’s march, let’s march Let an impure blood water our furrows.

Answer: The French national anthem. But no, I wouldn’t teach that stuff to children.

The writer and broadcaster Afua Hirsch tweeted: “Not only does Danny Baker post an image comparing a baby w African heritage to an ape, but he has the audacity to say problem is that those of us who point out how racist it is have ‘diseased minds’.”

>> His argument seems to be “Why didn’t you think my racism was funny. It was a joke! You people have no sense of humor.”

@56 He’ll have a new job at Fox by next week. Or if not at Fox, then in the White House Communications Center. But if that doesn’t work out, there’s always Breitbart, pork sauce’s favorite “news” source.

It isn’t “racism” so long as they can claim they didn’t “know” it was “racism”. Then it isn’t “their fault”. And they should not have to face consequences. Works equally well when committing public acts of non-consensual digital-vaginal penetration*.

“It’s not that I don’t rent to those people because of their ‘race’ or whatever. I’m just not comfortable with them, is all.”

“We didn’t pass her over for the promotion because of her ‘race’. It just wasn’t a good ‘team fit.'”

“It’s not like I’m saying Jews are inferior, or anything. But everyone knows how cheap they are. I’m just be honest.”

“What gives all these people the right to burden me with their issues? I should just be able to say and do whatever I want if I’m not really hurting anyone. Right?”

“President Donald Trump is not primarily responsible for U.S. economic success, says Charlie Munger, the right-hand man of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A, BRK-B) CEO Warren Buffett. ‘I think [Trump] deserves some credit, but a lot of it just happened,’ says Munger, 95, in his first interview after the Berkshire Hathaway Shareholders Meeting. … Munger, a Republican, said the strong economic performance resulted largely from the natural economic cycle and the decisions of Trump’s predecessors in the White House.”

No collusion, and essentially no obstruction. Of course a lot of people say, “How can you obstruct when there was no crime? When there was no collusion, how can you possibly obstruct?”

And there it is. The GOP are now even walking back the claims of innocence. And morphing their defense of wiping their asses with the constitution into a technical appeal with an admission of intent.

A technical appeal that is completely false, btw. As far as the statue goes, there is absolutely no requirement for an underlying crime or prosecution to bring an indictment for obstruction. There is a requirement of intent. And Woopsie! That kids, is what president constitutional crisis just admitted to. Saying he meant to obstruct an investigation into conspiracy but it’s okay because there was no conspiracy is saying he meant to obstruct.Um… goes to intent… I think?

The GOP is mocking House Dems and daring them to impeach. Which, frankly is neither here nor there. Double dog dares are no reason to impeach a President. But when Benito VonFuckstick admits that his actions having the effect of obstructing the investigation were motivated by the intent to obstruct the investigation… that’s a felony. Straight up. Every lawyer in Congress knows that.

And it means that failing to impeach gives every President from this point forward the authority to run the DOJ as her own personal hit squad and claim the same excuse.

Roger Rabbit Commentary: Ten million people asking Congress to remove a president from office before the end of his term is nothing short of extraordinary. You have to really work at it to make yourself that unpopular.

And any senator with a law license who, knowing that, sits on his hands and says, “nope, no legal or constitutional remedy,” doesn’t deserve to keep that license.

Too bad Yertle won’t be charged with aiding and abetting a felon. Hey, if Trump can threaten John Kerry with prosecution, then I don’t see why I can’t threaten McConnell with prosecution. Tit for tat, baby. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. If the Rethugs want to go this route, I’m ready to play.

Demorat Pornstar Party Of Russia Hoax & Collusion News– China Joe Biden (D-China$) Not Satisfied With $1.5 Billion From China, Smells Money In Ukraine. ——————————– Schweizer continued, “Contrast that with the case of Hunter Biden. Hunter Biden actually has real deals. The Ukrainian energy company Burisma actually transferred $3.1 million to an account over 14 months that he drew money from. There was a deal there. The deal with the Chinese, same thing. he flies over on Air Force Two with his father – ten days after they return, his firm has a $1.5 billion private equity deal with the Chinese government.” Schweizer went on, “Here’s the second difference. In the case of Don Jr. and the Trump Tower deal with Moscow that never came to fruition, this was occurring while they were private citizens. They weren’t elected officials. They weren’t government officials. They weren’t leveraging their political power or ability to help somebody with getting deals and getting rich. In this particular case, Donald Trump was candidate for President of the United States, but he held no official power. Contrast that again with the Bidens. The deals that the Biden family secured with these foreign governments occurred precisely when Joe Biden was vice president and had enormous power in that he was the point person on U.S. policy towards both China and Ukraine.”https://www.breitbart.com/radio/2019/05/09/peter-schweizer-unlike-don-jr-hunter-biden-actually-had-foreign-deals/

Whatever the fuck crimes Donnie Jr. is trying to avoid admitting to by ignoring a Senate subpoena, I doubt it’s all that much. He’s already on record in the Mueller report admitting to violations of CFAA. And he’s probably already committed perjury and violated sec. 1001 once or twice without realizing it. But nobody in this DOJ is going to do anything about it. So I don’t think that’s the point.

I think dragging him up to answer hard questions is useful in demonstrating the kind of incompetent morons these people really are. Never forget, that up to this point ever single bit of this “nightmare WEEEETCH HUNT” they’ve gone through has been entirely of their own making. Democrats like us, and even those in Congress, have had to sit aside and watch in fascination as the eldritch horror of GOP stupidity unfolded. It’s been good for popcorn sales. But they did all this to themselves. We just watched, pointed, and laughed.

But that’s really no surprise. These are a bunch of business titans who lose $100 million every year, year after year, after year. And then claim that makes them “smart”. They have failed at everything they’ve ever tried. And now that includes selling the White House to Russia.

There is an 11 year old rape victim in North Easter Ohio who is pregnant.

I know. That’s fucking horrible.

Wanna know what’s more horrible? The Ohio Human Rights Protection Act signed into law April 11 by Gov. Mike DeWine will force this little girl to endure this pregnancy and carry her rapists baby to full term and deliver. I guess that’s if she doesn’t kill herself first.

Full Text of the Mueller Report’s Executive Summarieshttps://www.lawfareblog.com/full-text-mueller-reports-executive-summaries ” At the same time, .if we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state . Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards,. we are unable to reach that judgment. Accordingly, while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.

Republicans who said they’d protect people with pre-existing conditions vote against bill to do thathttps://thinkprogress.org/republicans-who-said-protect-people-with-pre-existing-conditions-vote-against-bill-to-do-that-hr-986-67718530f5ff/ “Every House Democrat and four Republicans voted in favor of the bill, H.R. 986, known as the Protecting Americans with Preexisting Conditions Act of 2019. Meanwhile, 183 Republicans voted against it — including members who vowed in 2018 that they would protect people with pre-existing conditions.” “The bill is not expected to pass the GOP-controlled Senate, but even if it does, the president has threatened to veto the measure.” >> Republicans lied to their constituents. Par for the course.

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